Tsunamis are generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Recognising the imperative to put in place an early warning system for the mitigation of such disasters that cause severe threat to nearly 400 million of the Indian population that live in the coastal belt the Ministry of Earth Sciences has established a tsunami warning centre at Hyderabad.

Share this:

A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that sends surges of water, sometimes reaching heights of over 100 feet (30.5 metres) onto land. These walls of water can cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore. Tsunamis can race across the sea at up to 500 miles (805 kilometres) an hour—about as fast as a jet airplane. These awe-inspiring waves are typically caused by large undersea earthquakes at tectonic plate boundaries (Fig. 1). When the ocean floor at a plate...